Disposal and waste management of used containers for goods and chemicals have become important problems today. Most waste management programs are directed to essentially chemical processes which treat, e.g., sterilize, a used container to make it suitable for ultimate disposal in a landfill, melt or reprocess the material of the containers so that new containers or the like can be made from the old, or simply incinerate the container. Few, if any, approaches to waste management are directed to reuse of the container "as is" for another use or use of components or parts of the container for another use.
In the United States alone, it is estimated, for example, that about 10-16 million Freon.TM. or other refrigerant tanks are used and disposed of annually. While such tanks do not require any sterilization or other sanitizing treatment, they often contain, perhaps, one to two pounds of refrigerant remaining in the tank which must be removed prior to disposal in a landfill. It would be especially desirable to find a use for these and similar tanks, which has a low energy requirement, utilizes the remaining gas, e.g., refrigerant, and produces a novel product.